Saskatoon riverboat Prairie Lily docked due to low water levels, sandbars

The Prairie Lily river boat has run aground after over a decade of sailing the South Saskatchewan River.

On Wednesday, owners of the Saskatoon riverboat said the water level is so low that they can't cruise the ship.

"For the first time in our 13 years of sailing this ship, the sandbars have increased to the point where we no longer have a navigation channel," Mike Steckhan, captain and co-owner of the Prairie Lily, said in an interview. 

The economic impact will be huge for his business, which has stopped bookings and has been cancelling cruises getting into the season.

Unless action is taken to increase the water levels, the Prairie Lily will be forced to cancel its season, he said.

"There's no place that's deep enough for this ship. It's so low that there isn't a navigation channel for us to do our cruises safely, so we've had to cancel," said Steckhan.

Sandbanks form when the silt carried by the river accumulates, and over the last few years, there hasn't been enough water running through to flush them out, he said. 

He's calling for the Water Security Agency, which controls the flow of water out of the Gardiner Dam, to increase the flow to remove the sandbars. 

"We're not asking for all the water in the lake. We're only asking the WSA to provide a volume of flow that allows safe operation on the river," he said. 

Will release more water if lake levels rise: WSA

Water Security Agency president and CEO Shawn Jaques said that as of now, there are no plans to open the spill gates or significantly increase the flow of water out of the Gardiner Dam for now. 

He said that the current water level of the river flowing through Saskatoon is about 70 cubic centimetres per second (cms), which is equal to the amount of water flowing into Lake Diefenbaker — the reservoir formed by the creation of the Gardiner and Qu'Appelle River dams — from the west. 

"To put it into perspective, the median or the annual average flow typically is 145 cubic meters per second. So we're sitting at 50 per cent of what we normally would get," Jaques said in an interview. 

Steckhan said he wants to see 900 cms per second for 72 hours, or 400 cms for a number of days to mitigate the problem.

Jaques said there have been dry conditions across Western Canada over the last three years, and the snowpack in the Rocky Mountains is also well below normal right now. 

"When you have a below normal snowpack, below normal precipitation through the summer months, it has an impact on the amount of water flowing into Lake Diefenbaker, which as a result, you will see less water flowing through by Saskatoon," he said. 

He said the lake provides 60 per cent of Saskatchewan's population with drinking water, as well as water for potash mines, agricultural uses and ferry crossings to be maintained. 

"If the lake level gets higher, or we get a large rain event in Alberta or the mountains or something that increases that inflow into Lake Diefenbaker, we will open the spillway gates, and we'll release additional water," Jaques said. 

Hard 'to not use a bunch of 4-letter words': captain

Discover Saskatoon said the Prairie Lily is one of Saskatoon's most iconic experiences, and has helped showcase the riverfront to visitors and locals for over a decade. 

"It's also a business currently preparing for sale, making this disruption even more significant for its owners and staff," the tourism association said in a statement. 

It's hopeful that a path forward can be found that allows river-based businesses and users to continue to thrive in Saskatoon, the statement said.

But Steckhan said he's frustrated by the situation. 

"Well, I'm an old sailor, and it's really a lot of hard work right now to not use a bunch of four-letter words. So that's kind of how I feel about it," he said.